


Weights & Measures

by viklikesfic (v_angelique)



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-08
Updated: 2008-06-08
Packaged: 2017-10-05 21:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/v_angelique/pseuds/viklikesfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I really wanted a bit more of this, so here you go.  Sequel to Scenes from a New Zealand Restaurant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weights & Measures

After the meal, the group settles into easy conversation, and someone buys more pitchers. No one's showing any sign of leaving, but Dom's getting a bit restless beside him, and so Billy like a parent with an intuitive sense of his child's needs gets up and walks out on an empty pier for fresh air. Five minutes later, he feels Dom sidle up next to him, closer than a friend but perfectly still.

"God, that's fucking gorgeous," Dom exclaims, and Billy nods, the moon out over the water casting a glow that spreads and ripples invitingly. He thinks he'd like to take a grand splash in right now, headfirst, and then he turns his head to the right and Dom is staring not at the water but at his own face. His instinct is to lower his eyes, but he doesn't. Instead he tilts his head to the side and lets his mouth meet Dom's for the briefest of moments, comforted by the shadows that surround them.

"God, you're fucking brilliant," Dom says when they pull apart, and Billy notices the parallel structure and smiles.

"Really, you could be more original," he says dryly, knowing that Dom will recognise the tease. He does, and elbows Billy lightly in the side. He takes a few steps forward then and sits, dangling his legs over the edge. Billy watches, but feels no great haste to follow.

"Don't you just want to dive in?" Dom asks. Billy smiles, as he's no longer surprised by this odd mental connection, the shifting of one of his thoughts into Dom's own. At first it worried him, and he felt a little bare, a little exposed when it happened. But it was also one of the things that reassured him, that solidified the feeling of "this is _right_" when he took the plunge from friendship to this thing they have, and it's now a familiar comfort.

Billy decides not to answer Dom's question, but comes up behind him, crouching down and digging his hands into Dom's shoulders. Dom groans gratefully – "ah, yeah" – and leans his head back against Billy's chest. With Dom, there's a funny intimacy, not like with lovers of the past or – undoubtedly – lovers of the future. Billy appreciates this even as he weighs and measures it.

"So, when we wrap…"

"Shh," Billy cuts him off, a little harshly, his hands digging insistently into the meaty region between shoulder and neck. "Not tonight."

Dom nods, resigned acceptance, and lets a breath out slowly – his way, Billy has learned, off physically letting thoughts go. Billy continues the massage, acutely aware of Dom's physiological state, paying attention to his breathing and the tension in his muscles until he's sure Dom has relaxed. He wants to sit right where he is, legs on either side of Dom's body, but there's a level of intimacy he can't bring himself to reach in public. He sits next to him instead, their thighs casually touching.

"Come back to mine?"

"Yeah," Billy agrees, though there's no urgency in it.

Dom doesn't speak again, but Billy is drawn to the symmetry of their bodies – the touching thighs, the crossed arms where their hands rest on the decking behind them. The two points of contact ground him, and he enjoys being half of a whole. He likes to play make believe when he can, to pretend that he and Dom are soulmates and that they can somehow just be _this_ for the rest of their lives, though it is only New Zealand and they are only two men who have aligned by happenstance, a sort of accidental romantic conspiracy.

"We should go in, then."

Billy nods and stands first, then holds his hand out to Dom. There's a quick smile between them, an incomplete understanding, before they turn and walk back to the warm lights and dull happy murmur of the restaurant. He can't know everything there is to know behind Dom's expressive eyes, but that's all right. He doesn't have to.


End file.
